Miscellaneous Commentary For June 07, 2006

— The really ironic thing about this transcript that features Matt Lauer attacking Ann Coulter for ripping on the Jersey Girls is that it proves exactly the point she was trying to make: that Democrats can’t compete on the issues, so they have to put forth tragic figures whom you’re not supposed to be able to respond to in order to make their points.

— Katherine Harris, who’s turning into the Alan Keyes of the 2006 campaign season, is now complaining that she’s just too independent and too dangerous for the Republican establishment to support her:

“Katherine Harris thinks she knows why she’s been shunned by her party leadership and shirked by big donors, and it has nothing to do with political platforms.

“Perhaps in some elite circles, the reason I have not gotten more support…is because they don’t believe I can be controlled,” Harris said today during a speech to the nonpartisan Forum Club of the Palm Beaches.”

Please. You know what Harris’ problem is?

She’s too popular to lose in the Republican primary, too unpopular to win the general election, and has too much pride to bow out and let someone else take a crack at a potentially vulnerable Democratic incumbent.

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“No major stand alone righty blogger has come out in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment.”

That’s not correct. I strongly support the FMA and said so yesterday. Moreover, not only would I like to see the Constitution amended to define marriage as being between one man and one woman, I love the fact that they’re voting on it because it exposes the Democrats as the party of gay marriage. It’s worth a vote for that reason alone.

— I think this quote from Andrew Sullivan fully completes his transformation from a pretend conservative who backed the war as long as it didn’t get in the way of his support of gay marriage — to a completely irrational, blame-America-first liberal deep in the throes of Bush Derangement Syndrome:

“The United States is a rogue nation that practices torture and detainee abuse and does not follow the most basic principles of the Geneva Conventions. It is inviolation of human rights agreements and the U.N. Convention against torture. It is legitimizing torture by every disgusting regime on the planet. This is a policy mandated by the president and his closest advisers.”

— It’s almost hard to believe that something as insane as the Akaka bill would be considered by the US Senate at all, much less voted on. We’re talking about a a bill that would,

“(A)uthorize the creation of an exclusively race-based government of “native” Hawaiians to exercise sovereignty over native Hawaiians living anywhere in the United States. This “Native Hawaiian Government” could allegedly exempt these Hawaiians from whatever aspects of the United States Constitution and state authority it thought undesirable.”

There are many compelling reasons to vote against this bill: It enshrines a race based government into the law, it clearly appears to be unconstitutional on multiple grounds, and it’s even opposed by a majority of all Hawaiians. On the other hand, not only are there no compelling reasons to vote for it, but few uncompelling reasons to support it have even been put forward beyond the fact that some people in Hawaii want to do it.

In a saner world, this bill would be voted down 100-0. But, instead it’s overwhelmingly supported by the Democrats and even by a handful of Republicans. In my book, the fact that this bill has not just gotten this far, but that it will likely pass and won’t be vetoed, is proof that common sense has become a rarity in Washington. All I can say at this point is cross your fingers and hope for a filibuster or a miracle, because that’s about what it will take to stop this atrocious bill.